DRIAN GALLERIES
Drian Galleries were opened by artist Halima Nałęcz (Halima Maria Krzywicz‑Nowohońska 2 February 1914-2008) in Porchester Place, Bayswater continuing her prior involvement with the New Vision philosophy. Halima had been born in Antonowo in the Vilnius region in the district of Grodzieńsk, Lithuania and studied painting at the Stefan Batory University under the supervision of Professor Michał Rouba and she married in 1936, Stanisław Jastrzębiec‑Więckowski. After travelling to various European contries she came to London in 1947 and assumed the artistic pseudonym ‘Halima’, which eventually substituted her first names Halina Maria, a previously unknown Polish woman made her entrance into the artistic circles of London and after she married Zygmunt Nałęcz (died 1986), Halima decided to return to her painting studies at the School of Easel Painting in London and under Belgian abstractionist Jean Henri Closon in his Paris studio and her work evolved from non-figurative to figurative, in a style instantly recognisable and clearly pointing to her East European roots. In 1956 along with fellow artists Denis Bowen and Frank Avray Wilson, she opened the New Vision Centre near London's Marble Arch which was aimed at artists who were deemed unworthy stylistically of exhibiting their work in the prestigious Bond Street galleries the following year on on 23 October 1957, Halima opened the Drian Gallery, shortened from artist 'Mondian' and the name changed into plural Drian Galleries in November 1960. It gave the first big exhibitions in England to John Bellany, William Crozier, Michael Sandle, Yaacov Agam, Douglas Portway and many more emerging artists of the period. These two galleries, the New Vision Gallery and Halima’s Drian Gallery, cooperated with each other very closely. The last event to take place at Porchester Place was the exhibition of photo-montages by Basil Alkazzi in 1989 and on the decision of 84‑year-old Halima Nałęcz, the Drian Galleries ceased its activities in 1998. Halina Nałęcz continued to paint and lived until 2008.